Top 11 Favourite Animated Villains from non-Disney Animated Films

Hello random people (who happen to be reading this),

It's been a long time since I've typed up a post for this blog, and I decided to give it a wholly different meaning with a new series of posts.  I've been inspired by the lists of NostalgiaCritic and NostalgiaChick (reviewers of TV and Movies on http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/), to make some similar (or exact same "types" of) lists of my own.  :-)  Just because it's a bit of fun, and I'd like to hear what other people think of the lists, and whether or not they disagree with them.

Before you read - I will almost undoubtedly give away spoilers in this list, but I'll put the major ones in red so you can look away if you really want to spend your precious time watching the films instead of finding out the plots on here.  Ha ha.  ;-)

My first list...

Top 11 Animated Villains from non-Disney Animated Films

Number 11...

Rothbart - The Swan Princess



This bearded baddie's aim is to become King - specifically, King of King William's Kingdom  (WOW, that's a lot of Kings...).  To do this, he kills King William near the beginning of the film, using his MAGIC DARK POWERS (he turns into a dragon and also steals the King's daughter, the Princess Odette, in the process).  THEN, he thinks the BEST way to become King...  Is to marry the Princess.  Yeah.  Good going.  Even though this villain is pretty scary and cunning at the beginning of the film, and is a relatively comedic, funny, badass character later on (particularly during his pretty good song "No More Mr Nice Guy"), he doesn't really use his skill to its full worth.  I mean, I would have killed the Princess if I were him, seeing as she didn't want to marry him and all, but I guess he just wanted a sexy Queen during his time as King...  I still like him as a character, but I tend to prefer villains who are actually slightly better at their job.  Nonetheless, at the end, he manages to scare the weak at heart and young children by turning into the "Great Animal," an even larger dragon-like, bear-like creature (the animation of which is reminiscent of Don Bluth's, hmm...).  Oh yeah, before that, he also disguises his maidservant as Princess Odette, to fool Prince Derek into proclaiming his love for her.  
So, that's Prince Rothbart.  A villain I have liked since I first saw him, but who pales in comparison to many other villains in cartoon films.

Number 10...

Ruber - The Quest for Camelot (Alternative title - The Magic Sword)

As you can probably tell by this picture, this villain is a seriously weird-looking, muscly, over-confident, psychopathic guy, not the kind that you'd mess with if you bumped into him on the street. As you can also see on this picture, he has a succession of robotic/metal henchmen (who are powered by magic seeing as electricity and computers didn't exist during King Arthur's time, when the film is set), plus a large, rather comedic gryphon who does useful stuff for him. His mission... To take over Camelot. And though he does it in a pretty roundabout way (which I'll explain presently), he's a pretty scary villain, you can't ever really tell what he's planning, unless he's carrying out physical violence, and he's rather repulsive to look at as well (voiced brilliantly by a guy called Gary Oldman).

So, years ago, this person (SOMEHOW) was a Knight at King Arthur's Round Table. The madman became something of a megalomaniac, and decided that he should be King of Camelot instead of Arthur (the KING thing again... Men...). He kills a Knight called Sir Lionel, and, years later after he's been.. . Possibly... Practicing magic and sulking about not being in control of anything, he kidnaps Sir Lionel's widow. He knows that King Arthur will let Lady Juliana (the widow) into the Castle, but not him, so he just basically forces this woman to have a holiday to Camelot. Ruber tries to kidnap Juliana's daughter Kayley, but she escapes, becoming the heroine of the film. Well, he comes pretty close to killing King Arthur, having sneaked into the room of the Round Table and attacking the guy with a sword, but Kayley and her blind boyfriend Garrett come to save the day.

I like this villain because he's quite scary, freaky, and a little insane, and even though his plan is a little weird, it actually (almost) works perfectly, as he manages it (and his henchmen) pretty well. I don't think he tops the list because he's not my favourite out of the following villains - and still not quite the best.

Number 9...

Drake - The Pebble and the Penguin

This villain is automatically different from the last two for the following reasons:

1. He's a penguin, not a human being.

2. His goal is not to be King, bah, not even "Leader Penguin" so to speak, his goal is to get the hottest penguin chick - er I mean - female penguin, to have penguin chicks with.  I hope the "interchangeable" human and animal terms there didn't confuse you too much.

3. While the last two villains didn't specifically ruin anyone's life, they just ruined peoples' lives to get to the top, this villain wants to destroy (yeah, literally destroy, have killed, basically) the life of a penguin called Hubie, who also fancies Merina, the really hot female penguin.

So yeah, this villain is automatically evil, selfish, and clearly does not care for the welfare and happiness of his "future mate".  He is also voiced by Tim Curry, which automatically makes him more awesome, and he sings as well, one of my favourite cartoon villain songs, "Don't Make Me Laugh."  Seriously, if you haven't seen this clip, check it out.  It's great (and has awesome cartoon lighting effects for no apparent reason).  Like Ruber, he has sidekicks, but they're actually really annoying and completely pointless.  Also, he does have other mates, but they are, of course, not nearly as beautiful, kind and gorgeous as Merina (if she were a human...  Boy would she be up there with the Disney Princesses...)  

It's only at the end when we see Drake's only weakness...  His home.  He lives in a really weird, scary-looking cave with a skull-face for an entrance (you have to see it to believe it), and, because it's made of ice (Adelie penguins live in cold places after all), it crumbles with the slightest crash, knock or bang, which, in the case of the film, is a large boulder which he throws towards Hubie and Rocko, Hubie's "sidekick."  He is crushed to death by shattering, falling ice, making nature, rather than a hero or heroine, his demise.  Otherwise he would have almost definitely won, killed Hubie and Rocko, and got the mate he wanted.  Which automatically makes him more badass and formidable.

This is a villain that used to scare me quite a bit, although he's not pyschotic or magic like the last two, he is actually a more physically powerful, intelligent, devious, evil villain all round.  I only wish I could give him a better position on this list, but I can't.

Number 8...

The Red Bull - The Last Unicorn

Now, I know some of you who have seen the film may class The Red Bull as a Henchman rather than a real Villain as such, but, come on...  He might as well be a Villain for all the frightening power and influence he has.  Basically, this unintelligent, large, possibly magical bull, who seems to be permanently on fire, serves one main function...  To drive all unicorns into the sea.  Yep.  I know.  Offhand that sounds really weird...  But I will explain why later.  For now, let's just talk about this ****ing scary animal.

OK, not only does this bull actually do his job, and do it well, but he is seriously scary.  I didn't watch this film as a young kid, but I can seriously imagine having got nightmares if I had watched him at a young age.  He roars in a scary way and chases you.  If you fight back, you get SERIOUSLY burned.  So you have to run.

Now, as you may have guessed, this Bull, though seemingly unstoppable and all-powerful over those whom he ferociously chases, he does have one main weakness.  At the end of the film, we don't see him die, as such, but we see him defeated and humiliated, as the Last Unicorn on land, who is probably also the bravest ever born, actually drives the Bull into the sea himself.  Of course, his fire sizzles out, and he probably also drowns to death.  GOOD RIDDANCE.

So, yeah, that's The Red Bull.  Seriously scary, with a clear function, a 99% successful performance record, and a bone-chilling, loud roar such as you'd never hear from a bull in real life.

So, now, to some of you, this may seem like an obvious Number 7...

King Haggard - The Last Unicorn

Now, you guessed it, this seriously ugly, old, oddly dressed guy, is the one who made The Red Bull drive almost every unicorn into the sea.  And why?  Because he loves unicorns.  Aw.  And he likes to watch them almost drowning as they swim at the edge of the waves (you heard that the froth of waves looks like white horses?  Well, the theory here is that they're unicorns...).  He's like the ultimate collector.  And even with hundreds, if not thousands of beautiful one-horned horse-like animals struggling for survival every day for his delight, he's STILL NOT HAPPY.  Urgh.  Maybe because there's still one left?  ARGH, NO!!  One unicorn won't make one lousy difference! What, does he look into the ocean and think, "Hmm, there aren't quite enough unicorns there, I just need one more to satisfy all my endless evil greed"?  NO!!  He's just a greedy, selfish, unloving bastard, who doesn't even care for his adopted son (who's the Prince).  

Similarly to Drake, he's destroyed by his own home, for some bizzare reason, as the unicorns escape from the sea to go back to their homes, his castle crumbles around him, and he falls into the sea, presumably drowning, as he rightly deserves, the ungrateful bastard.  Also, before the film, we see him being really creepy and weird towards the Last Unicorn, disguised as the human Amalthea. He obviously wants her for a sexy female companion, but at the same time, if she is a unicorn, which he can't quite be sure of, he wants her gasping for breath in the sea for the rest of her life...  So he kind of shouts at her in his weird, slow, creepy voice which is, guess what, done by ANOTHER brilliant, famous actor, Christopher Lee!  It's surprising how similar Saruman and King Haggard are...  But I'll let you draw your own comparisons.

So, King Haggard, obsessed with a particular type of animal, nothing else will satisfy him, and though some might think he has no intentions to hurt anyone...  Come on.  He wants those unicorns to suffer.  If he didn't, he'd keep them in a nice pen and see to that they're looked after every day, and he certainly wouldn't get the terrifying Red Bull to fetch them for him.

Number 6...

Professor Screweyes 

Now, a few of you might wonder why I've put this villain so far at the top of the list.  Well, personally, I really like him as a villain.  Again, he's a little crazy, but he has no huge ambitions to take over the world or trap endangered animals...  He's a little more mysterious and harder to figure out.  Plus, he's slightly less scary at times than some of the other villains on this list, so, when I was younger, I preferred him for that reason to other, more "popular" villains.  He just wants his business to run smoothly, and doesn't care if he hurts people (or dinosaurs, as in the case of this film) in the process.  He also contrasts greatly with his brother, who we also meet, the main difference in their appreance is that this villain has a screw for an eye.  Which makes him a little creepy, especially for kids.
This villain owns a circus, specifically, a circus designed to scare people, which automatically makes this guy dodgy.  He doesn't find his happy, slapstick clown funny, but the children who see him, the Goodies, do.  These children have both run away to join the Circus...  Wise idea.  So Screweyes persuades them to sign a contract, with THEIR OWN BLOOD (sick and frightening, huh?), which means they have to work for the Circus for life.  
Eventually this villain dies in a rather freaky way, almost as if the writers thought, "Great, this villain needs to die, let's creep out kids AND kill off this guy at the same time, even though he's already been defeated..."  So, throughout the film, we have seen crows around him, possibly his treasured pets.  For some bizzare, unknown reason, once "his" dinosaurs have been saved and the children have been rescued, the crows all land on him, presumably consuming him, and then fly away, at which point we see that only a screw (his "eye") is left, where he once was.  
So, even though some people may not estimate this villain very highly, he was and is effective for kids, and he's a bit more original and less "predictable," than some of the other villains on this list.  So I had to include him somewhere.  Plus he's cruel to kids and dinosaurs, and wants to make people scared.  You have to admit that is pretty psychotic.

Number 5...

Rasputin - Anastasia

Now, most of these villains are ordered in terms of how much I like or used to like them...  But...  I think this list also has to judge villains in terms of how much of an impact they have, how frightening they are, how successful they are or have been.  And this villain was certainly successful in the past, killing most of the Russian Royal Family (YES- it didn't happen like that in real life, I'm ONLY talking about this mainly fictional film here, folks!).  He's also repulsive, literally falling apart, yet he carries on, with the help of magic and a few random, apparently useless followers (apart from Bartok WHO'S AWESOME), to fulfill the goal that, for some bizzare, evil, psychotic reason that we can't quite figure out, he wants to fulfill.  I suppose it's because he's finishing off the family, in a way.  Once Anastasia's gone, nothing is left of the Russian Monarchy.  It's like collecting all of the comic books in a series, or cleaning all the rooms in your house, it gives a sense of completion, and provides an overwhelming sense of fulfillment.  Shame it has to involve killing a beautiful, awesome, badass young woman.
So, this villain is defeated when his magic is destroyed, as it was originally contained in a strange glowing glass thing, which Anastasia destroys by repeatedly stamping on it.  Come on, how many animated Princesses kill off the villain?  VERY FEW.  Deep respect for her.  So, in terms of how he dies, Rasputin's pretty weak if you ask me.  But, because he used his magic so well, he did very nearly succeed in killing Anastasia, again, in rather a roundabout way, I would have just sent a laser through her chest or something if I were him, but there you go.  I'm really glad she survived.
So, Rasputin, a scary villain with an awesome, memorable song ("In the Dark of the Night,") pretty awesome powers, and admirable perseverance, but he was never a favourite of mine, and his weakness is very clear by the end. 

Number 4...

Carface - All Dogs Go to Heaven

Now, not only is this villain successful once, but he's successful twice.  OK, he meets a grisly end, but not without first killing Charlie, his, erm, rival, two times, or at least leading him to his death the second time round.  He'll stop at nothing to get his way, and he's generally a menace, with a few henchmen, who are, not surprisingly, far too incompetent for Carface.  He's not particularly scary as such, but you can tell from the word go that he's not the kind of dog you want to be messing with, especially with his insults, shouts, and threats, and the way he keeps and treats an orphaned, innocent young girl, Anne-marie, for many years in a basement...  The fact that he's more like a "normal" character at first, makes him a better villain...  Less obvious, more subtle.  
OK, the dogs in the film are basically human beings...  Except that they live in a world with humans.  It's pretty confusing.  Carface is the owner of a large casino, which he shares - or shared - with Charlie, a nicer, if also criminal dog.  Charlie doesn't quite seem to realize that Carface wants all of the profit for himself, so the former dog gets completely drunk and unaware of the world, with a watch that represents his life (important later), Carface puts a car into gear, so it runs over Charlie, and the drunk dog and the car fall into the sea, where Charlie's watch is stopped, meaning Charlie himself dies.  Yeah, so the watch, which shows the time, also represents the life of the character who owns it.  Not quite how it works in real life, but Charlie would have died anyway...  He escapes out of Heaven, tries to evade Carface by kidnapping the evil dog's "little girl," (who can talk to all animals and provides extra cash for Carface) but Charlie is eventually forced into a trap when Carface captures Anne-marie again.  He and his henchmen cause Charlie to drop his watch into deep water, and, hey presto, he dies again.
However, Carface also falls into the water, and guess who comes along?  The BIG-LIPPED ALLIGATOR (and here is one of his moments).  This Alligator is, of course, hungry for dog.  So Carface gets killed as well, and we see him right at the end escaping out of Heaven too, paving the way for a sequel...  Which I haven't seen.  So I can't comment on that, I'm afraid.
So, Carface is a formidable, practically unstoppable villain, who also happens to be a rich, no-nonsense criminal with (mostly) incompetent henchmen.  But he definitely deserves a place on this list, even if you didn't like the film, but I loved it, which helps.

Number 3... 

Warran. t Rat - An American Tail

Now, a little bit like Carface, this villain is pretty darn subtle, but even more subtle than Carface, and never particularly scary in himself.  When you first see him, in fact, with his pretty funny cockroach "sidekick," you could almost think of him merely as a scheming miser, like Fagin in "Oliver Twist," perhaps, except a bit more serious.  But once Fievel falls into his house, after some well-meaning pigeons accidentally deposit the mouse on top of it, we really start to realize that this villain is very evil indeed...
First, he brings Fievel to a work-house, which is run by a seriously scary, evil-looking boss, forcing little kids to work (although we don't see much in this place, because Fievel, and his new friend Tony, manage to escape).  We don't see Warren. t "Rat" again until Fievel stumbles upon his "clubhouse," when we see him hanging out with - .  What?  Wait a second...  Cats?  But he's a rat, surely rats would never hang out with cats?  Well, we see the Baddie take off his ears and his rather fake looking nose and...  Oooh.  He's not a rat, he's a cat.  And the boss of the cats, in fact.  Warren. t Rat has Fievel imprisoned by his "henchmen" (this group inclues Tiger, voiced by the brilliant Dom DeLuise, who is actually a Goodie), instead of just...  Erm...  Eating him.  Which I would have done if I were that cat.  Of course Fievel needed to survive, but yeah...  As I have pointed out earlier in this post, the realism has to be bent for some occasions in these films for the Goodies to survive. 
This villain is never killed outright, which is satisfying, making the end of the film far more original overall.  Basically, the mice in the film have built a large model of a mouse, the Giant Mouse of Minsk (which is one of the scariest things in the film), to scare away the cats, so they won't bother the mice anymore (fair play).  The cats are forced into the sea, and they are forced onto a boat that is going to Hong Kong (far FAR AWAY).  What a way to get rid of cats.  They hate water, and the only way they would quickly get out of it was not by going on land, but by going on a boat. 
One big thing I like about this film in general is that it does not have villains leading the plot, as happens in most of the other films here.  The whole villain thing is kind of a side-plot, with the main focus being Fievel looking for his family.  Warren. t Rat merely hinders (or helps, unknowingly) along the way.  So, there's Warren. t Rat, a pretty scary, fearsome, subtle villain, with no real aim as such, except to eat mice and make their lives hell.

Number 2...

Hexxus - Fern Gully - The Last Rainforest 

Now, I don't know about you, but when I first saw this villain - BOY was he frightening!  Not in a kind of "AGH SCREAM!" way, but just in a "Oh my God...  Oh my God.  Ohmygod.  OHMYGOD.  OHMYGOD!  OHMYGOD!!" way.  Not only is he just a living, moving ball of muck and slime when we first see him, but he turns into a pretty scary snake-like creature, with an evil voice, then he turns, OMG, into a HUMAN SKELETON, then, into something...  Well... It's actually less scary.  But it has a better singing voice, (specifically, surprise surprise, done the brilliant Tim Curry.  What animated villain has he NOT DONE?  Yeah, exaggeration, but take a look at his Imdb credits...).  It's just noxious gas with a human-like body and a face.  But compared with most of the other villains' looks on this list, this guy's final form is still darn scary.  Plus, he's totally against the environment, wanting to destroy everything natural and beautiful, which immediately goes against my principles (being an eco-geek and all).  So, Hexxus makes out to be an original, unusual villain, who very nearly succeeds in destroying the rainforest.  Yeah, in theory, his goal, to destroy Fern Gully, isn't that big.  But think about it.  Once he's destroyed Fern Gully, he could potentially destroy EVERY OTHER NATURAL HABITAT IN THE WORLD.  To me, that is PURE INCARNATE EVIL.  I do not want to be within 1 MILE of this guy, let alone see him in real life (which would, luckily, obviously, never happen...).
And it's only with the fairy's magic - and being trapped inside a tree - that he's defeated...  Again.  Like he was at the beginning.  When that tree dies or is cut down...  He's just going to get out again!  FAIRIES WHAT ARE YOU PLAYING AT?  It just makes him far more scary, to think that someday he's going to come back and try to destroy wildlife and the environment yet again.  Fun.
So, that's Hexxus, a slimy, polluting, disgusting, evil, dark-hearted villain, who deserves to be feared as one of the scariest, most original cartoon villains of all time.  In my humble opinion.

OK, this is it...  Who is my Number 1, favourite villain on this list...?

Number 1...

Darla Dimple - Cats Don't Dance

Now, let's say you haven't seen the film.  I know what you're thinking.  How could a cute, anatomically-inaccurate, blonde little girl, be a top, noteworthy villain?  Well, she can.  Because she is the bitch from Hell.  And, similarly to Hexxus, she doesn't care one bit for animals, even though she's actually a film star who acts in pictures WITH animals.  Plus, she has one of the scariest animated sidekicks - Max, a giant butler, who barges into places and just does EXACTLY what Darla wants.  Because, of course...  As we know from history, the best, most evil villains don't actually do the dirty work themselves...  Darla herself does very little actual evil in the film, but her whole character is evil, and plus, she's original.  Can you think of any other film where such a little girl has so much evil, power, and influence?  No, I don't think you can (unless it's one I haven't seen yet).  Fortunately, she's defeated by the end of the film, but only, pretty much, by a cat's whisker.  She doesn't have any plan as such like all the other villains, the storyline is mostly led by the Goodies, with Darla interfering at every turn.  I prefer it that way.  In most animated films the Goodies are trying to stop the Baddies, here it's the other way round, and it makes the film far more tense, exciting, and nerve-wracking all round.  Plus, it puts the goodies to their limits, and it also allows us to see just how far Darla will go to get what she wants...  And it's pretty far indeed, in some cases, nearly physically injuring herself when Max isn't available, towards the end.

So, it may be a surprise, but Darla is, by far, my favourite villain from an animated film NOT made by Disney.  I mean...  Just look at her.  She's a million miles more evil and cold-hearted (and spoilt) than any real little girl I can think of.  She doesn't exactly lead the studio in the film, but she might as well do.  And SO MANY PEOPLE LOVE HER.  Can they not SEE HER FOR WHO SHE IS?  I think not.  Oh yeah, and other people in the film, who work with her, are ACTUALLY AFRAID OF HER, never mind the animals themselves, they must be TERRIFIED!  If you haven't watched this film, I recommend it, even if you only watch it for Darla Dimple.  Granted, some of the side characters, even the main character, aren't great, but it's an entertaining, noteworthy film overall.

So, that's my first Top 11 list blog post, because like the Nostalgia Critic, it's good to go one step beyond the normal "Top 10" list.  Plus it allowed me to include Rothbart, who's really not a bad villain at all.  Just not the best.

Please tell me what you think of this list, could I have added anyone else?  What could I have said about the villains that I haven't already said?  If you can come up with a list of the same title, who would you include?  I'd be interested to hear your opinions, and I'll come up with another one sometime soon.  Ta ta for now!